It's week two of ROH on SBG - can El Generico retain the ROH TV Championship over Jay Lethal?

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Review:

Show opens with a recap of the main event from last week where Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team, Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, defeated the Kings of Wrestling, Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli, in what was the Kings' last ROH match.

Better shots off the crowd this week, makes it seem like a packed house.

Jim Cornette starts the show off by bringing out WGTT. Benjamin does some good promo-stuff and complains that Cornette hasn't given WGTT the Briscoes after the post-match assault from Best in the World. Cornette says the Briscoes won't face WGTT without the title being on the line. Haas says put the titles on the line and they'll face the Briscoes here and now. Cornette refuses to reward the Briscoes with a title match for a sneak attack. WGTT still want the match, one way or the other.

ROH Focus On: Mike Bennett. I'm not his biggest fan. Cornette puts him over. Bennett does a good sit-down promo. Says he wants to move on from wrestling to Hollywood and be the next Rock, except he says he's a better wrestler than the Rock. Cornette puts Bob Evans, Bennett's trainer, over as a bitter and grizzled veteran.

Match #1: Jimmy Jacobs w/ Steve Corino vs. Mike Bennett w/ 'Brutal' Bob Evans. The Redemption-storyline has been one of my favorites this year. Tale of the Tape shows Bennett with the size advantage. They uphold the Code of Honor. Back and forth to start but Bennett takes control when Jacobs misses a dive to the outside. Doesn't last long, though. Bennett gets knees up for a flying senton and then nails the Box Office Smash (similar to Matt Hardy's Side Effect) for the win. Solid enough match, but sometimes you have to give a little to make someone and it shouldn't have been as back-and-forth. TNA-level mistake sees them switch to a hype screen for Lethal/Generico just as Bennett and Corino are about to come to blows. They quickly switch back. It's not OK when WWE does it, but at least they can they're doing it live. This show is taped and there's no excuse for that here.

Nigel McGuiness asks a fan who they think will win tonight in the main event. The fan says El Generico.

Inside ROH: Eddie Edwards talk about how he got the nickname "Die Hard." He claims it came from when he got hit in the elbow by a chair (by Kevin Steen who's not mentioned) on one night, and then participated in Ladder War 2 the night after even though doctor's said he shouldn't. Makes for a great story, except he was "Die Hard" before that. Still, it does show how driven he is. UFC-esque promo, altogether. I love that about ROH, even I don't like that historical revisions. Next up, Davey Richards and Roderick Strong talk about their match next week. Richards compares he and Strong to Superman and Lex Luthoer. Puts over Edwards/Richards as a rivalry based on respect, whereas Richards/Strong is a rivalry based off comtempt. Strong says the reason Richards can't be him is because he's "the shit." Strong, that is. Strong comes off as a real douchebag here. Great stuff.

Main Event: Jay Lethal vs. El Generico [c] – ROH Television Championship Match. This would be Generico's first title defense sicne winning at Best in the World from Christopher Daniels. Pretty even match up via the Tale of the Tape, however ROH officials do not Generico's age :D. Kevin Kelly mentions there's a 15-minute time limit on all TV title defenses, which I love. Back and forth stuff to start with some really fun high impact offense from Lethal. McGuinness brings up Lethal being a protege of Samoa Joe and I love that. HISTORY~! Lethal dominates, as he should since Generico plays the babyface role better than anyone in pro wrestling today. Generico attempts a couple of comebacks, but Lethal halts his progress each time. Generico gets a huge flurry of offense and it all looks beautiful. Huge dive to the outside by Generico. ROH wisely takes a commercial break at this point. Replay from during the break shows a moonsault off the guardrail by Generico onto Lethal. Bit of a drag period. Now Generico is in charge with Lethal playing the babyface-in-peril. Lethal starts his comeback with a backspring elbow. Three minutes left in the match as Lethal hits a missile dropkick. And a clock shows up to let us know how much time is left! Great stuff, that. Love the little things. Lethal hits a beautiful belly-to-back suplex into a neckbreaker for two. Two minutes left. Big swinging DDT by Generico only gets two. "OLE!"-chant picks up by the crowd. One minute left. Blue Thunder Driver by Generico gets 2.9. 30 seconds left. Yakuza Kick in the corner gets countered with a roll up by Lethal for 2.9999999. Ten seconds left. They trade positions and the time limit expires. Crowd hates that, but I suppose it's understandable when you think about it as Lethal has a big name. Crowd wants five more minutes, of course. So do Generico and Lethal. Cornette comes out and says they don't have five more minutes, but they can wrestle until the end of the show (three more minutes). Crowd goes nuts and Generico and Lethal go at it hard and fast. Ironic word choice, that. They trade big moves for nearfalls. Generico signals for the BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAAAAH! Lethal counters with a walking suplex. Big elbow by Lethal misses and Generico goes for the BRAINBUSTAAAAAAAAAAH! Again. Lethal fights off and hits the big elbow for 2.999999999999999999999999999~! "Scant few seconds remain" according to Kevin Kelly. More big moves from Generico. Superkick by Lethal follows into a Lethal Injection by Lethal and Lethal wins the TV Championship! Excellent match! Ugh, and instead of playing up the big win they quickly advertise next week's main event and then switch back to Lethal with the belt.

Overall, another good episode with an excellent main event and TV Match of the Year contender. Same complaints from last week with a couple of new ones, though. They need to focus on the post-match before advertising what's coming next or next week. That post-match celebration or post-match issue is what drives a storyline and to ignore it in favor of advertising can really make that moment seem less than special. Next week is Roderick Strong vs. Davey Richards for the ROH World Championship. Can't wait!

And lastly, here's an awesome .GIF from last week, courtesy of THE BOARD:

Review by: syxxpakk

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